Hulu and Funimation Sign Partnership in Wake of Break from Crunchyroll and VRV

Hulu and Funimation, a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television, have announced a multi-year partnership. This news, in the wake of Funimation’s break from VRV/Crunchyroll, comes as a surprise. The deal will allow Hulu to gain streaming rights to new subtitled and dubbed anime from Funimation. Because of this deal, Hulu becomes an even stronger competitor against Netflix when it comes to its ever-increasing selection of anime. 

We here at MstSage Entertainment were caught off guard with this news. We were expecting Sony to launch an exclusive app via the SOE platform with the PlayStation after they acquired Funimation.

There are some fabulous positives to this announcement. If you already have Hulu you will be able to enjoy more anime without having to break the bank on getting an additional subscription. While I foresee some anime to be exclusive to Funimation’s streaming platform, this gives the average anime lover more of what they want. Currently, Funimation and Hulu are the only streaming services where you can stream all episodes of My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, and Tokyo Ghoul.

Now, I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop, as Sony has left a bad taste in my mouth after years of ruining games (Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided). However, this seems to be a good arrangement, though only time will tell. 

Sources: https://www.funimation.com/blog/2018/12/04/hulu-global-anime-powerhouse-funimation-ink-expanded-partnership/

Editors Note: In an earlier version of this article it was stated that Hulu was no longer available on Roku, after further research it was found that it is on older models of the Roku and Hulu is still available on new models of Roku.